The Moz Blog

The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

With new tools introduced so regularly, it's easy for marketers to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out which ones are most effective for their own work. That focus, though, shifts our attention from what really matters: setting the right goals for our companies. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Mackenzie Fogelson walks us through the five-stage process she uses to make sure her team's attention is on what really matters.

Video Transcription

Hey there, Moz community! I'm so excited to be here with you today. I wanted to share something with you that has been really powerful for the businesses we've been working with in the last year or so about building community. It's a concept that we call "goals not tools," and it works in this pyramid format where you start with your goals, you move on to KPIs, you develop a strategy, you execute that strategy, and then you analyze your data. And this is something that has been really powerful and helped businesses really grow. So I'm going to walk you through it here.

We start down at the bottom with goals. So the deal with goals is that you want to make sure that you're setting goals for your entire business, not just for SEO or social media or content marketing, because you're trying to grow your whole business. So keep your focus there. Then once you develop your goals, and those goals might be to improve customer communication or you want to become a thought leader. Whatever your goal is, that's where you're going to set it.

Then you move on to determining what your key performance indicators are and what you're going to use to actually measure the fact that you may or may not be reaching your goals. So in terms of KPIs, it's really going to depend on your business. When we determine KPIs with companies, we sit down and we have that discussion with them before we develop the strategy, and that helps us to have a very authentic and realistic discussion about expectations and how this is all going to work and what kind of data they're expecting to see so that we're proving that we're actually making a difference in their business.

So once you've determined those KPIs, then you move on to developing a creative strategy, a creative way to meet those goals and to measure it the way you've determined in your KPIs. So this is your detailed roadmap, and it's two to three months at a time. A lot of companies will go for maybe 12 months and try to get that high level overview of where they're going for the year, and that's fine. Just make sure that you're not detailing out everything that you're doing for the next year because it makes it harder to be agile. So we'd recommend two- to-three month iterations at a time. Go through, test things, and see how that works.

During your strategy development you're also going to select the tools that you're going to use. Maybe it's Facebook, maybe it's SEO, maybe it's content marketing, maybe it's email marketing, PPC. There's all kinds of tools that could be used, and they don't all have to be digital. So you just need to be creative and determine what you need to plan out so that you can reach the goals that you've set.

Then once you've got your strategy developed, that's really some of the hardest part until you get to execution. Then you're actually doing all the work. You need to be consistent. You need to make sure that you're staying focused and following that strategy that you've set. You also want to test things because you want as much data as possible so that you can determine if things are working or not. So make sure that during execution there are going to be things that come up, emergent things, shiny things, exciting things. So what you'll have to do is weigh whether those things wait for the next iteration in two to three months, or whether you deviate your plan and you integrate those at the time that they come up.

So once you're through execution, then really what you're doing is analyzing that data that you've collected. You're trying to determine: Should we spend more time on something? Should we pull something? Should we determine if something else needs to completely change our plans so that we're making sure that we're adding value? So analysis is probably the most important part because you're always going to want to be looking at the data.

So in this whole process, what we always do is try to make sure that we're focusing on two questions, and the most important one is: Where can we add more value? So always be thinking about what you're doing, and if you can't answer the value question, you know, "Why are we doing this? Does this provide value for our customers or something internal that you're working on? If you can't answer that question, it's probably not something valuable, and you don't need to spend your time on it. Go somewhere else where you're adding the value.

Then the last question is where you can make the biggest difference in your business, because that's what this is all about is growing your business. So if you stay focused on goals, not tools, it's going to be really easy to do that.

Thanks for having me today, Moz. Hope I helped you out. Let me know in the questions if you need any assistance.

About MackenzieFogelson —
Mack is the Founder and CEO of Mack Web - an online community and brand building company (and also a Mercury 100 Company, one of the fastest growing companies in Northern Colorado). She has been a featured speaker at MozCon, SearchLove, and other top industry conferences. Mack is a firm and passionate believer in user experience and the building of community.

66 Comments

I like how you've super simplified the process. I've found Avinash's process described in this articleDigital Marketing and Measurement Model very useful as well. I'm sure others will find it helpful as well.

This is so true when it comes to any strategy. Thanks a lot for an insightful diagram. A the end, any marketing undertaking, would it be digital or traditional, requires firstly defining objectives and KPIsand then thinking of tools and strategy... Scared to admit but I made that horrendous mistake myself. I tried to make sure what platforms or tools to use without first considering what is that we want to achieve through that. Hopefully, I realised that it is not the way it goes so quick made a step back and now it makes so much more sense.

Starting from goals and key performance indicators will help you determine the platforms that are a fit for what you want to accomplish. Then you can test different tactics through your strategy and execution and see what's working to reach your goals.

I think many have still a lot of work to do in terms of setting that one particular strategy that works. Definitely, however, tools won't take the business where the MDs want if we as marketers don't define where we want them to take us. Anyway, I guess it is a common mistakes for many as I noticed more and more great articles about it. I also like how Avinash Kaushik explains goals, KPIs, objectives etc.

I would add a more foundational layer in that the goals (I'm assuming marketing team goals) should spring from the long term strategy of the company as a whole. This can insure that our marketing is driving us toward our vision.

I like the idea that KPIs follow strategy, I tend to get those two backwards for some reason.

Great WBF. Good reminder that inbound is not off on its own, but is just a tool of great marketers and should act and feel like every else we do in the company (values and mission). We don't let tools drive strategy in operations, so why do we function differently when it comes to social/seo/digital/inbound?

That's such an important point, and something that Mack alluded to above:

"You want to make sure that you're setting goals for your entire business, not just for SEO or social media or content marketing, because you're trying to grow your whole business."

It's far too easy -- especially at larger companies, where the overarching goals can be more ambiguous -- to create goals based on what sounds like a good idea, rather than on what's going to move the needle for the company as a whole. When everyone works toward the same goals in their own ways, real progress is made.

You can certainly add more granularity to the process and yes, it is necessary to have goals set for your departments and your teams. I'd recommend working through each of the levels in the pyramid to fully identify what you want to accomplish. In other words, if the goal is thought leadership, you've got to break down what that actually means. Especially with high level goals like being a thought leader, it can mean very different things to each company who sets it. What does it mean to you to be a thought leader? What does that look like? What results are you expecting? It's really important to get granular so that you're not setting goals that are too vague and impossible to accomplish.

Awesome post Mackenzie, and well said that we need to chose our goals first rather going for tools. I have worked with many clients in past where they were not interested in any kind of marketing or strategy for their business, all they were interested in was backlinks. They used to ask us to just build links for them (no matter how we do), and were not ready to work through a proper plan. And this is where many businesses lag behind - lack of knowledge regarding SEO or say 'marketing'. I hope they read this post of yours and get inspired to do more meaningful work. :)

Thanks Praveen. We've tested this concept on all kinds of projects and clients, all in different stages. When we're being challenged, we often find that bringing it back to goals and KPIs gets back on track. As long as you're having that conversation with the client and not just in an internal silo, it has worked very well for us.

I have always been doing this but without giving a name to each part, or doing each part as it was different to the others. From now I won't forget them: goals, kpi, strategy, execution and analysis :)

Awesome post, I totally agreed with Mackenzie changing API is very simple tricky and that shows in pyramid and it is an important process if you want to be an effective marketer.

We went through a parallel rearrangement of business goal with marketing approach and our company and we apprehend we had been so fixed up in exciting different marketing strategy that we strayed from business goal. Results marketing efforts were unclear and not properly targeted.

This post we have rearrangement our marketing team has to more clarity on what to do and what efforts seem to be more effective.

Thanks for this post Markenzine. I will add more valuable to bring out this process and alignment between marketing and business goal.

Trudging through setting up goals and KPIs right now for my client. It's hard work when you've focused on tools you're entire life. I'm getting a little overwhelmed by which tools I will use to analyze.

When it comes to tracking Community Goals, it seems Moz Analytics may be great - applause, engagement, etc.. Of course I have Google Analytics, as well as Facebook reports to track ad spend. And, I'm intrigued by Kissmetrics' ability to track users over time and devices. Any thoughts on narrowing down analytics tools?

We have yet to find one tool that can track everything you'll want to analyze and use to make educated decisions. So in order to narrow those tools down and determine which ones to work with, I'd start with your KPIs. What specific data are you wanting to collect?

This post goes into a little more depth on setting your goals and specific KPIs for both revenue and brand, so that might help you. Other than that, we use many of the tools you've already listed. You can also try True Social Metrics.

Make sure that you're including the "so what" when you're providing this data to your client. Otherwise it's just a Google Analytics report.

Terrific explanation, lots of people out there still rely on SEO alone and thinking if they already dominate the serp then they have achieved their goals, well internet users are much smarter and critical today, you may get many traffic if you rank high on serp but it doesn't mean you will automatically get high conversion rates, not if your website doesn't look so convincing.

Very well said in the pyramid that first we have to set the goals of the business, then determine the key performance indicators that will prove effective change, strategy should be made that how can achieve the goals, execution of the strategy and at last appraisal is there whether the goals are achieved or not. This pyramid helps in achiving the goals efficiently and effectively. Very important information provided. Thanks.

An online business certainly needs to be shaped creatively for surviving the legging-up competition and keeping the whole business in view while defining objectives is thus the need of hour. Fascination of tools has somewhat put the ultimate business goals on backseat and I guess this is the major blunder that strategists commit these days.

Laying down both the short term and long term business objectives is as much important as is to think about social media and other marketing tools. But that’s not the end because what is most required in present is maintaining the standards. Evaluating the unachieved business goals and re-defining them from time to time is something you cannot do without. Treating your business as a complete entity is the only way to be different and to be known.

If you keep on asking yourself and your team ‘where can you make the biggest difference in your business’ triggers out creativity and zeal to do things innovatively. When creative and innovative suggestions of team are implemented, it also acts as intrinsic award to them.

Excellent. We've found the pyramid to be really effective in bringing clients back to what's important. It's easier for them to think in tools and tactics when they're describing what they need our help with; what challenges they want us to help them solve. Certainly tools and tactics have to be effective in order to accomplish goals and effect change, but that always starts from goals.

I am concerned about the 2-3 month iterations of this plan. Is that enough time to determine if something is working (or not working)? I agree that 12 months is too long though. Twice a year seems like a good middle ground for my type of clients - those that don't like meetings and would rather sell their product than meet with me to discuss marketing goals.

Also, if we are having strategy meetings every 2 to 3 months, it will require our company to charge more based on the prep time for those meetings and for the constant changes and shifts in work that will come out of these meetings.

I'm not advocating we "set it and forget it", but at some point, we have to sit back and watch our seed grow into a tree. If we get impatient and plow over the dirt before it sprouts, we'll never know how beautiful our tree was going to be. (FYI: I've never farmed in my life, that analogy was pure inspiration!)

I like being agile, but I am learning that I need to make sure the shiny, new tool everyone is blogging about is worth having it thrown into a marketing strategy that was carefully planned out and methodically organized.

Certainly you need to do what works for you, your agency, and your clients. We have found success in 2-3 month iterations. Here's how that has worked for us:

Goals & KPIs
Initially, when the client is new, we do a more formal strategy that details what we'll be working on, high level, for the next 12 months. This usually equates to 4 campaigns and is essentially a high level overview of the goals we're working toward and the KPIs associated (which is a discussion with the client). We may even put a theme to the campaigns. Again, all depends on the client.

Strategy
Then we break down only the very first campaign (approx 3 months in duration) in detail. What is our creative strategy for the channels we're going to use: content, SEO, social, email, etc? What does that look like for deliverables (we create an execution calendar so that we can delegate the work among the team)? And certainly, the KPIs that we've determined above that we're going to be accountable for...do those need more granularity? Do they match up with what we're doing? All of this stuff is planned out and discussed with the client so that we have approval before moving ahead.

Execution & Analysis
When we're in execution (doing the day-to-day of the creative strategy), we're looking at the data weekly (to make sure we're on track; that everything we need to be measuring is actually being measured). But monthly we are doing a more in-depth analysis of the data. This is a reporting session that we use to sit down with the client and discuss progress. At our monthly check-in, it's usually not enough time to make any changes unless something is definitely wrong or not working. This is simply a communication piece and to check in/show progress that we're working toward what we promised. It's also a time to address the shiny things that come up and evaluate whether we need to adjust our deliverables or wait until next campaign.

Analysis certainly happens monthly as I've explained above. But quarterly is where we are able to dive deeper into the questions: what's working, what's not, what needs more time? And this is where your question is coming from.

I am concerned about the 2-3 month iterations of this plan. Is that enough time to determine if something is working (or not working)?

You may have a campaign you're working on that requires 6 month iterations. For us those are projects that run simultaneously with the day-to-day work that we're trying to accomplish. Even so, I'd recommend evaluating monthly and quarterly so that you're holding yourself accountable. Are your KPIs indicating progress in the right direction? There's nothing worse than selling a client on something you think will work and then getting 6 months in before telling them it's tanking. Ultimately, the KPIs need to be showing progress. And that doesn't have to just be analytics data. Sometimes it's strategic relationships we're working on and making some progress with.

When we jump back into strategy every 3 months (after revisiting goals and KPIs) this is usually a quicker process than when we initially set the first strategy for a client. Based on what we're seeing in the data, we usually send our ideas in a half-page document (sometimes an email), very informally, to see if we're on the right track before putting detail and execution deliverables to it. It's meant to be a conversation about what we're seeing in the data, any other indicators that are implying a change in what we're doing, and then proposing what changes we make in the next quarter to make progress. We are not necessarily changing goals and KPIs, but we're changing the creative approach we have for reaching these goals.

Again, all of this depends on what works for your clients, but we have found success with this process.

I have a question. In your video you mention many of the web-based tools available for marketing agencies (social, PPC, etc). I'm curious to know if you could share a few off-line tools with us that you have been using with clients. I'm sure its different per client, but it would be interesting to hear.

I feel in this current age of Google redefining their entire search business model, we all need to hedge our bets and assure we are not all putting our eggs in one basket, but developing our companies to serve the customer on multiple levels. As such, your video was very insightful. Thanks again, Stephan

The easiest way to describe our set of "offline tools" is the human element. Integrated marketing (like building community) isn't as powerful when you're not putting in the in-person efforts like going to events, conferences, meet-ups, giving back to your community, making friends (and not just for the business). This is the hardest stuff to measure but it's also the most effective.

This is so very simple yet so very true. On the surface, the process that Mackenzie lays out might seem like a big company 'corporate' thing to do. But from my experience, it is an essential process if you want to be an effective marketer.

We just went through a similar re-alignment of business goals with marketing strategy and our company. And we realised we had been so caught up in executing different marketing tactics that we strayed from business goals. As a result, marketing efforts were unfocused and not correctly targeted.

Fast forward to today, post re-alignment, our marketing team has much more clarity on what to do and efforts seem to be more effective (it may be too early to tell, but I'm crossing my fingers!).

So thanks for this post Mackenzie. I'll add that it might be worthwhile to carry out this process quarterly or every 6 months just to check the alignment between marketing and business goals.

One of the most powerful points you made is concerning agility. Too many Business Plans are made in cement with strong emotional attachments. If the plans change, then people get offended.

But creating a plan that is AGILE will keep the emotions and opinions further outside the loop and allow for actual analysis of real data to drive the direction. Oh, if only common sense were more common!

So true! Being agile definitely means being willing to let go of what you previously thought would work, and sometimes that can mean more work. We've found better results from analyzing data weekly/monthly, executing quarterly, and changing direction based on data and how that affects goals.

Fantastic post, Mackenzie. Simple and clear. Sometimes it's better to explain things as you do than speaking about and excessively relativizing hard concepts. You've demonstrated that it's possible to speak in a clear way.

Can you give us some examples of KPIs that you have included in a client's strategy? Most clients I have met just want to make more sales, of course we have a handful of goals we set personally knowing it will increase their exposure or brand but I would love to know specific KPIs that you focus on. Thanks.

I hear you. It's really difficult to get clients to set goals and KPIs that go beyond revenue. It's really important that they're/you're considering what you want to accomplish with their brand in addition to how your efforts are going to affect the bottom line. That's why it's so important that each step of this pyramid is a discussion with the client so that you're both on the same page.

As for KPI examples, read this post. It will provide you with an understanding of the KPIs that we think should be measured and also addresses how difficult it can be to directly measure ROI with social media and community building, but that doesn't mean your efforts are not effective.

Seo-focused companies, at least here in Germany, often loose focus on the whole picture and the overall strategic planing and operational execution. Thanks for the great WBF Ms. Fogelson. Even in SEO departments KPI implementation and evaluation is in worst case scenario considered a waste of time by upper management. The only KPIs that are usually measured by many companies are revenue and profits. Seo in München Germany is also predominantly used by online companies. And often these companies would need help to not loose the whole picture of their lacking strategic planing, and the nice little pyramid you spoke about could be a beginning of a learning process in the seo-focused industry.....

My pleasure. The key is that you're setting goals for the entire organization, not just for your marketing. You can have sets of goals for each department, but all of those goals are really sub-sets of working toward the overarching goals for the entire company. That also helps to break down silos and assists each department in understanding that you're all on the same team. You all want what's best for the business.

Tools are out there to make it easier to REACH the set goals! All too often, people get more focused on all the bells and whistles of the tools out there and lack a complete strategy. Beginning with goals and being able to chart progress really are the first steps when developing a marketing strategy.

So true. As quickly as our industry moves, who know what the tools will be like in 6 months. If you're focused on tools, you're chasing a moving target that you have no control of. You can control goals and the efforts that you put forth in creative strategy and that's where your energy belongs.

Nice and Informative WBF Mackenzie, it actually reminds me of lessons I remember in my early academic years. An overview like this is a great template and foundation to work from. Back to planning basics and getting the pens and paper out before you start anything!

Only one little thing I would include in the pyramid diagram is a feedback look from analysis to KPIs maybe just to show the inter-relationships between the two. I feel that 'goals' set are less fluid and more rigid to adaptation and that KPIs need constant review to reaching those goals set out for the success of the business.

At my company we find ourselves comparing KPIs all the time i.e what did we discover in the analysis?, are the KPIs on target from the analysis to achieve these goals? Organisational Goals I would imagine for most businesses tend to run 1,3 and 5 years. Why? well they affect all functions of business namely finance/administration, operations, hr, sales & marketing etc. so no one function of a business can easily alter the goals of a business by itself.

KPIs on the other hand can have review timescales at whatever a business function deems necessary but as long as they address them as being relatively fluid, adaptable in nature and realistically achievable against organisational goals and that ultimately their requirements affect all efforts further up the pyramid.

Thanks again Mackenzie, great to see these kind of topics in Moz videos.

I would agree that there needs to be a connection from Analysis to KPIs. This post on the Moz blog walks through this pyramid a little more in depth and does a better job of visually showing how the entire process is really a cycle. Each of the levels are interrelated and depending on the context, may even need to be swapped (or maybe you have an additional level to add). We've found that the simplicity of this concept really helps to bring us back to what's important: the goals we want to accomplish for our clients' businesses.

It's really important to ensure that the goals and KPIs you've set are being revisited to ensure your efforts are actually working to accomplish and measure exactly what you've set out to do. What I'd caution about is not changing KPIs (or goals) just to make your efforts look better to the client. You're not going to win every time. You're going to try stuff that's going to fail and not contribute much to the lift at all. That's not to say that goals and KPIs might not need to be adjusted, but I'd make sure you're not just adjusting to make the data look more favorable. If you're communicating with the client along the way and they are part of the process of setting goals and KPIs, and you're doing what you promised, you both have an understanding of what to expect on the road ahead.

Totally agree Mackenzie changing KPIs is quite simply tricky and doing it for the right/wrong reasons (what ever you deem them to be) will resonate up the pyramid.

Sorry I had not taken into consideration here in my thread a scenario of supplier-to-client relationship as I don't work in an agency environment but the principles are the same. If you are working with senior management internally or external client interactions with their senior management the process is the same I feel.

I can see your point about cautioning on adapting KPIs for vanity reasons to appease client frustrations and I guess working internally as I do (if I did adopt this approach) would ultimately come down to management saying well where are the sales David? Thankfully this has not happened to me.

As you say if they are (client or SMs) part of the process then they somewhat have a level of control over outcomes, whether they be desirable or not.

Thanks for a really interesting Whiteboard Friday - this idea of being goal-focused instead of tool-focused has come at just the right time for me as I move towards a more hands-on approach with my own clients, to help them with their SEO, social media presence, brand recognition, and conversion.

Beginning with their goals, determining the best ways to measure progress, and then formulating a strategy that's specific to them is really valuable!

Sure thing. This Goals not Tools concept has helped us to keep the focus where it belongs: on the business. Tools are going to change and they're not going to work the same for everyone. If you stay focused on goals, you'll be in a better position to accomplish the stuff that's going to help you grow your business.

I appreciate you for your great question and for your encouragement too. Most of the webmasters are just keep posting comments and likes, perhaps they think if they do this might give the better ranking at Google search indexing.

I think it is just nonsense thinking over this, if you are doing SEO since 3 years back, and still the same situation and ranking is there. Google keep update algorithm and fall it the previous ranking. So I would also suggest webmasters don't focus on the off page activities, just go for the pay per click advertisement or for other mediums to achieve results in the future.

Right,It is totally different from what it was 4 years back.More and more better Algorithm variable used by Google to give better search results.

I think several people still make the first mistake making plan only for SEO but this plan do not works for all.Some business needs more social media, some needs better direct marketing tools like email marketing/telemarketing and so on.It varies from business to business.Different marketing tools amalgamation varies from business to business.The point is stop thinking in one direction.Spend 30 minutes extra on planning trust me it saves a lot of your effort while implementing it.